Poultry has become an ever-increasing food in this and other countries not merely because of its high protein value but also by reason of its relatively lower cost compared to other high protein foods including meat and fish. The processing of poultry generally involves numerous manual operations which tend to increase the cost of poultry. One of the most difficult manual operations encountered in a poultry processing plant is the splitting or severing of the breast of a chicken particularly while it is moving continuously in a suspended condition from a shackle which is suspended from an overhead travelling conveyor. The splitting operation is performed manually by using a sharp blade or other instrument. The splitting operation is not only time-consuming, tedious and physically exhausting when performed by an operator on a production line but the problem of achieving repeatedly a uniform split or cut for each chicken to provide uniformity of end product is virtually non-existent.
Whether the chicken is to be packaged with separate parts or a combination of parts, the resulting package must be uniform in the ultimate wrapped package to present a pleasing appearance to the consumer at the counter at the time of purchase. Discriminating purchasers may reject a package containing an improperly cut parts of a chicken.
It will be readily appreciated that a chicken freely suspended from a shackle that is freely swingable from a travelling conveyor provides a minimum of support for clamping a chicken in a firm position each time enabling an operator to sever the breast bone and meat with a clean cut each and every time. After the breast severing operation, the individual chickens continue in their travel suspended from the conveyed shackle for further processing of the chicken before removal of each chicken from its shackle whether for cutting into drumsticks, thighs, wings, breasts, and other parts.
It is, therefore, an objective of this invention to provide an apparatus and method for receiving, positioning and clamping a chicken while it is moving along a directed path and severing the breast bone of a clamped chicken in a predetermined position before the chicken is released while moving the chicken continuously in its directed path of travel.
Another objective of this invention is the provision of an apparatus in which chickens suspended from a travelling conveyor will be automatically positioned and firmly held while the breast bone is severed automatically.
Still another objective of this invention is the provision of a mechanism for releasably clamping a chicken while moving in a directed path of travel and firmly supporting the chicken for an interval of time permitting further processing of the chicken before releasing it.
Yet another objective is to position and clamp a chicken and to sever the breast bone automatically while the chicken travels along a prescribed path before releasing the chicken with the breast bone split for subsequent processing.
Still a further objective is to process a chicken by severing the breast bone automatically as the chicken is moved from one location to another while suspended from a moving shackle.
Other objectives and many of the attendant advantages of this novel apparatus and method will become rapidly apparent to those skilled in the poultry processing technology from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the apparatus and description of the method taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the appended claims in which claims mechanical equivalents are contemplated from the precise structure and method claims.